


simply complicated

by chai_and_coffee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Melinda does a write, Melinda does an Appear, Romance, To All The Boys I've Loved Before AU, Voltron, shallura - Freeform, slowburn, tatbilb au, vld
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-27 08:24:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17763248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chai_and_coffee/pseuds/chai_and_coffee
Summary: Five letters.One for Lotor, the super rich kid who she fell in love with while on a trip.One for Lance, the one she fell in love with because of his sexy dance moves....before she found out he was gay.One for Takashi Shirogane, resident pretty boy of the school....and her ex-best friend's boyfriendOne for Hunk Garrett, the super nice kid who she's pretty sure was just being nice.One for Keith Kogane, her next door neighbor, her ultimate love, and her sister's ex-boyfriend.Those letters were meant to be safe, an outlet for her emotions.Things start to go awry when Allura Altea's letters are mailed out to the objects of her affection.~A 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' Shallura AU





	1. stay lost

Allura was going to get up now. 

 

No seriously, she was very much going to get up now. 

 

Anytime now. 

 

And, now.

 

No, now!

 

Okay, false alarm. Now. 

 

Before Allura Aurora Altea could get up after the sixty thousand times she had willed herself to, her little sister ran in, throwing a large lump at her. The lump hit her squarely in the face, and that itself was another excuse for Allura not to get up. 

 

“Pidge.” She groaned, pushing aside the lump. She groggily blinked her eyes open to look at her sister, named Katherine Elizabeth Altea, affectionately called Pidge by the Altea household. “What even is this?” She asked as she held up the grayish blob that had been thrown at her. 

 

“Clay.” Pidge said matter of factly. “It’s my waking-up clay. If I find that you’re sleeping and you’re going to be late, then I get to throw this at you to wake me up.”

 

“I was _up_ , you little gremlin.” Allura muttered as she pushed herself up, blinking her eyes furiously. 

 

“We both know that you were going to stay in bed until you finally looked over and saw the time. Honestly, Allura. There’s a reason why you have an alarm clock.” Romelle, her older sister, appeared behind Pidge, hands on her hips and an amused smile on her lips. 

 

Allura nodded sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head, pushing herself up to a sitting position. She took the moment to look at the Altea sisters, both staring at her with amused smirks. 

 

Romelle was the oldest. She had their father’s straight blond hair, their mother’s chocolate colored eyes. She was tall and delicate, wearing a patterned floral shirt tucked into a simple black skirt. She stood tall and straight, exuding confidence. There was a sort of maturity in her eyes that made people double guess her age. 

 

Katie was the youngest. She had been adopted when she was just a baby, and often lamented that she didn’t have any of the Altea characteristics. Both Allura and Romelle, however, tried to convince their baby sister that she had their mom’s fair coloring and their father’s button nose. 

 

Allura, on the other hand, was nothing like the two. She was an exact split image of their father, from the startling blue eyes, cute little button nose, and creamy mocha skin. The only thing that was different was her waist-length silver hair, a genetic abnormality. Her sisters envied it, she hated it. The silver hair made her stick out as a sore thumb. 

 

“Are we all waiting for Allura to wake up?” Their dad peeked in behind his other two daughters, shooting a wink at Allura that made her giggle. Other than Romelle, Alfor was the tallest in the Altea household. Their mother had been short, like Allura was. 

 

“Yeah. We’re supposed to go and get some fro-yo.” Pidge said with a grin. 

 

“In the morning?” Their father asked with a raised eyebrow. 

 

“We’re supposed to celebrate Romelle’s college moving! Besides, she leaves at noon, and the airport is 15 minutes away from us.” Allura grinned as she hopped off the bed, not botheringmake her bed. Romelle shot her a look and she retreated back to her bed, slowly pulling the covers in a neat manner. 

 

“Okay, fine. Go on, girls.” Their father said with a laugh. “I’m downstairs if you need me.”

 

“Sure thing, Dad. I’ll make sure that Allura gets some driving practice in.” Romelle teased, and Allura flopped back onto her neatly made bed with a groan. Her sister was doing it on purpose, just because she had taken too long to wake up. 

 

The rest of the day had passed by quickly, and before long, they were at the airport, watching Romelle leave them. 

 

Allura felt a surge of anger. Their sister was abandoning them for a college in Australia. Without her, who was she going to have lunch with? Who was she going to confide all her secrets in? It felt like she was losing a part of her soul. 

 

But then her sister pulled her in for a tight hug, and all her anger dissipated. She breathed in the scent of her perfume (Japanese Cherry Blossom from Bath and Body Works, Romelle always liked the subtle scent) and the familiar embrace of her older sister. 

 

“Don’t worry, ‘Lura. I’ll be coming for Chistmas.” Romelle comforted. 

 

Right, Christmas. That seemed so far away. 

 

“Skype every day, and text me, and, oh, I don’t know how I’m going to live without you.” Allura whimpered in her sister’s shoulder, and clung to her for a second when Romelle finally pulled away. 

 

“Make some friends, Allura. Don’t be so sad. Go out a little. Experience something. Maybe get a boyfriend.” Her sister teased. 

 

Allura blinked, nodding. ‘But you left Keith, and he was your one and only.’

 

Keith Kogane was their next-door neighbor, and Allura’s last love and best friend. She had fallen in love with his easy attitude and slightly grumpy demeanor, but he had fallen for her sister. And even though she had had to tamper down her feelings for him, she was an avid supporter of her sister and his relationship. Komelle was her one true pairing. But Romelle had broken up with him before departing for college. The only evidence that she had even been broken up over their split was the red rim of her eyes at dinner, but even that had disappeared. 

 

Allura was still a little miffed that her sister hadn’t even bother to try long distance or anything, and just broke it off just like that. Also, it made everything awkward. She couldn’t really interact with Keith anymore, like how they used to, with her pining and him being the best friend. Pidge was pretty sad too. Keith was like a big brother to her, and she was still at a loss as to why he had stopped coming over. 

 

But she didn’t say any of those things as Romelle encouraged her to get a boyfriend, no. She simply held her tongue and stepped out of the way for Katie and her father to get their goodbyes in as well. 

 

The house seemed emptier when she returned to it. She climbed onto her bed, looking at the darker tint of her room. Romelle was the eldest. She was neat and orderly and responsible. How was Allura even going to live up to that standard?

 

Luckily, her phone pinged with the announcement of a text, jolting her out of her thoughts. 

 

[Lance: hey chica! is the witch gone?]

 

Lance was her other best friend, and her third love. She had fallen in love with him over his dance moves and his Spanish…before she found out that he was gay. The two became fast friends. But aside from Pidge and her father, Lance didn’t really like her sister or Keith at all. 

 

[Allura: Be nice. I just lost my sister. Yes, she’s gone. You wanna come pick me up so we can go grab some grub?] she sent. 

 

[Lance: I’ve told you not to say that. Like…ever. And yes! I’m game.]

 

She laughed at her friend’s antics and ran to get a bit more dressed, running downstairs just in time to run out the door before Lance started honking. 

 

“How are you?” He asked sympathetically once she had buckled up in the passenger seat. 

 

“Eh.” She muttered. “I just want some really, really good food that I can stuff my face with, go home, watch a romance, and then go to sleep and not think about the first day of school tomorrow.” She grumbled, admittedly not excited to start her junior year. 

 

“That sounds like a good idea. Luckily for you, I can take care of the first part. You gonna have to watch the movie by yourself, though, because this chico’s got a hot hombre to meet up tonight.” Lance winked at her outrageously as he parked. 

 

“Ugh, spare me the details.” She gagged as she slid into a booth with her friend, hiding a grin behind her menu. 

 

“Uh-oh. Evil bitch alert.” He whispered to her. 

 

That could only mean one thing. Lance’s cousin, Adam Garcia, had once been a part of their group. But after Allura had kissed his crush (it was spin the bottle, what did you expect!) in middle school, he had gone all….ice queen. 

 

And as cliche as it sounded, Adam seriously hated her guts. 

 

“Ugh. Tell me he isn’t making out with his boyfriend.” She muttered with a roll of her eyes. 

 

“I would tell you that, but then I’d be lying.” Lance said.

 

Okay, so Adam was here with Takashi Shirogane. Her day just got worse. 

 

Takashi was…nice enough, she guessed. He had been one of her loves in middle school (her second love, actually) and she had kissed him during spin the bottle. Not that it freaking mattered anyway, because now he was with Adam, and she barely talked to him. Hell, she barely knew him. 

 

“Okay, so what do you think—“ Lance began, and she was more than happy to turn her attention away from the it-couple of the school and pay attention to whatever outfit he was going to wear on his date tonight. 

 

When she got home, she was already in a bad mood, and it didn’t help that her sister was sitting and eating on the same popcorn that Allura had specifically instructed her not to eat. 

 

“I hate you!” Pidge screeched when Allura took her laptop away in retaliation. 

 

“You can have this back when you apologize.” Allura said with a roll of her eyes as she padded up the stairs and into her room. She wasn’t too worried about Pidge, eventually the girl would come to her senses and apologize for directly violating her directions. 

 

She shut the door behind her and tossed Pidge’s laptop onto the bed, before heading to the closet. Maybe she’d indulge in a little romance of her own tonight. 

 

She flicked the light on and saw the baby blue hat box that sat on the top shelf of her closet. The satin box was her mother’s, and Allura had gotten it when she had passed away. The box didn’t house any hats, though. 

 

They housed letters. 

 

Whenever Allura had a crush so intense, she pretended like she was writing a letter to them, explaining all her emotions. Then she licked up the envelope, pressed it shut, and kept it in the box, never to see the light of day. 

 

She had four so far. One for Lotor, the super rich kid that she met overseas, Lance, Shiro, and Hunk, the super nice kid who had danced with her at Winter Ball. 

 

Well, she was adding a fifth. Keith. 

 

She grabbed her pen, a piece of paper, and started to write. 

 

_ Dear Keith,  _

 

_ I’ve always wanted a story like the romance between the boy next door and the girl. And when you came into my life, I really thought that it was you. You’ve always been the one for me, the one that I’ve turned to. When I was younger, I was hopelessly in love with you…well, I still am. But…you’re the guy who dates girls like Romelle. You like her neat freakness, and you didn’t even run when she asked you to bake for the PTA. You’re….absolutely amazing, and as much as I have these strong feelings for you, I can’t ask you to betray my sister like that.  _

 

_ Do you remember when we saw ‘Hamilton’? I’m Angelica. You’re Alex. She’s your Eliza.  _

 

_ I guess I’ll never be satisfied after all.  _

 

_ Love,  _

_ Angie. _

 

It was one of the shorter ones, but she really wasn’t feeling the writing today. She just wanted to go to sleep. She sealed up the letter, dropped it into the box, and placed the blue container back in its spot. 

 

There. She had locked up a part of her life, never to come out again. 

 

She lumbered off to bed, eyes drooping, barely stifling a yawn. She must have been more tired than she thought, because her head hit the pillow and she was out within moments. 

 

The alarm blaring in the morning was the first thing that jolted her out of her reverie, and on any other day, she would have hit snooze and went back to bed. But this was the first day of school, so she reached over and silenced her phone, and skipped to go get ready. 

 

She didn’t know that there was anything wrong until her hat box, her precious box with all her letters, wasn’t there in her closet. 


	2. sweet escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> allura finds out that her letters were mailed

Allura ran outside, her eyes wide and on the verge of becoming too-wide. 

 

“Did you see Mom’s hatbox?” Allura asked her father as he rushed by, donning his scrubs. Most people joked about how Alfor looked in pink scrubs. Allura had even heard some of the other single ladies commenting about how good he looked, and that was just _wrong_. 

 

“No, honey, I didn’t. I’m running late, be sure to take your sister to school. Look both ways before crossing an intersection.” Alfor said as he pressed a hurried kiss to her forehead, rushing off. 

 

Allura sighed softly as she rushed on, peeking her head into her sister’s room. “Pidge, did you see my hatbox?” She asked, her tone rushed and worried. If someone had gotten ahold of those letters….

 

“No.” Pidge answered shortly, and Allura didn’t think twice on it. She was already running late, and she needed to get to school. Her hatbox was probably right in front of her, but in her rush, she had failed to see it. 

 

She threw on a simple black skirt and a off-the-shoulder blouse, the same color as her azure eyes. She slipped her feet into flip-flops (she had to take advantage of the warm weather) and grabbed her bag, fresh with new books and the despair that accompanied going back to school. 

 

“Pidge!” Allura called out. When that didn’t work, a anxious Allura tapped her foot and yelled, “Katie!”

 

When that didn’t work, she yelled, “KATHERINE COLLEEN ALTEA YOU WILL COME DOWN HERE NOW!” 

 

That seemed to do the trick, and a very irritated Pidge ran down the stairs. 

 

“What took you so long?” Allura demanded as she slid into the driver’s seat. 

 

Pidge gave her a look and pulled out a helmet. “I wanted a safeguard. You failed your driver’s test twice.”

 

Allura grumbled as she backed out of the driveway, not appreciating how her sister had protected herself from her driving. 

 

Luckily enough for Allura, the drive was short, and soon she was guiding the car into a parking space. Pidge ran out of the car as soon as it stopped, sprinting down the street to the middle school over to join her friends. 

 

Allura sighed, and checked her face in the mirror. Questions coursed through her mind, making her panic. Where were her letters? What was she going to do without Romelle? Why were things so awkward with Keith now? 

 

Luckily, a little knock on her window startled her out of her thoughts. It was Lance. She beamed at her best friend, but the smile quickly faded when her best friend held up a familiar letter, mouthing ‘we need to talk’ at her. 

 

They didn’t have a chance to talk until Gym, where the teacher really didn’t care if kids participated or not. All you had to do was walk laps around the field, and he’d give you an A. 

 

“Look, Allura, you might not have heard, but I’m pretty gay.” Lance began, and Allura sighed in relief that her friend’s tone was light and teasing. 

 

“Relax. I wrote that letter before we got close or I even knew about your preference to boys. But while we’re on that topic, I’m in serious trouble.” Allura took the next fifteen minutes to explain about her deepest crushes and how she wrote a letter about them and placed them in the hatbox. 

 

“Now, I hate to make you even more panicked, but I’m sure the other kids of your letters got them. And I hate to say another thing, but I think Shiro’s making his way over to you now.” Lance said, picking his pace up to a jog right as Takashi Shirogane fell into step with her. 

 

“Hey, can we talk?” Shiro sounded confused and he held up the letter. 

 

“I know—Look, I had a crush on you when we were in middle school. It was a super deep crush, but that’s it. I wrote the letter to get over you.” She explained quickly. 

 

“So…you don’t have a crush on me?”

 

“Not anymore. I promise.” Allura said, and picked up her pace to a sprint to catch up with Lance. She pinched her friend’s side as she caught up to him, glaring. “Thanks for leaving me.”

 

“Hey, hate to be this person again—-“

 

Lance didn’t have to finish his sentence. Keith Kogane, her sister’s ex and all time love was walking towards her, letter in hand, same confused expression. 

 

Shit. 

 

“Hey—“ Allura said, and hated how awkward she sounded. 

 

“Hey. Can we talk?” If anything, he seemed more broody today, darker. One of his eyes was permanently covered by a sweep of hair.

 

“You’re here about the letter, aren’t you. It must have gotten mailed to you on accident. See, I wrote that when I was younger.” Allura said. 

 

“So….you liked me.” Keith said slowly. 

 

“Only for a little bit, really. But then I liked you only as a friend, and you started dating….Romelle.” Allura wasn’t sure if Keith was over how her older sister had dumped him, but based on the wince she gained from him, she could see that he hadn’t fully recovered yet. 

 

“So you don’t like me.” He reiterated. 

 

“No! I’m dating someone else anyways.” She fibbed, and immediately regretted his words when she saw how his face took on a protective expression. 

 

“Who?” He asked. 

 

Crap. She hadn’t thought this through. “Uh—Shiro.” She said, and just at that moment, said “boyfriend” ran past her. 

 

“Hey baby!” Allura giggled, a forced one, but she hoped that Keith couldn’t hear that. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. 

 

“Woah—“ Shiro cursed, but immediately caught her, looking at her with a faintest hint of confusion. A look in his eyes meant that she would be explaining this later, but for right now, he was playing along. 

 

“Keith was asking about me, and I said that I was dating you! Isn’t that right?” She asked brightly, a bit too cheerfully. A little bit away, Lance openly gaped as she planted a kiss to Shiro’s nose. 

 

“Yes, that’s right.” Allura would have preferred if Shiro’s voice had sounded more believable, but oh well, she’d take what she could get. 

 

“Oh. Okay then. I’ll see you later.” Keith stalked away, now looking grumpier than he had been. Allura watched him go, and gulped when she came face to face with a grumpy Shiro. 

 

“Heh..can you put me down?” She asked softly. 

 

He obliged, and placed his hands on his hips, raising a perfect eyebrow at her. 

 

“And…can we talk about this in private?”

 

That’s how she found herself sitting opposite to Shiro at lunch, him happily devouring the sandwich that she had caught him eyeing and pushed over to him. 

 

“Sho uu ana el e i u ish e?” He mumbled through a mouthful of bread. 

 

“Swallow first, and I’m guessing you’re asking why I kissed you?” She murmured, and hid a grin behind her hand at his nodding. 

 

“So, you know the letter you got? I wrote those a long time ago. Anyways, I kept them, and they must have gotten delivered to everyone. And Keith….got one too. But I don’t…have a crush on him, and I wanted him to get off my back.” Allura said sheepishly. 

 

“So you turned to me.” Shiro asked, and it wasn’t phrased as a question, more as a statement of fact. 

 

“Yes, and it was just a one-time thing—“ Allura started, but he set down his sandwich with unprecedented seriousness and cut her off. 

 

“What if it wasn’t?” Shiro asked, tilting his head. 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, you want to get Kogane off your back. I understand, you fell for your sister’s ex. I, on the other hand, want to make Adam jealous.” Shiro said simply. 

 

“Okay, first of all, why would you want to make Adam jealous? Second of all, everyone knows that you two are going to get back together anyways. And also, I’m not playing this charade anymore!” Allura exclaimed. “It was a one time thing.”

 

“Well, half of the class saw. Kogane’s going to realize that you lied when we suddenly break up after one day of dating.” Shiro said rationally with a shrug. 

 

“We are not dating, Shirogane. I’m going to class.” And with that, Allura stormed off. 

 

-

 

Now, she hated to say it, but Shiro had been right. People had been asking about her and Shiro the entire day, and even Keith sidled up to her locker to ask about their relationship. That made her irritated. The second Romelle had dumped him, Keith had completely forgotten about her and Pidge, but now that she was seeing someone else, he wanted to come and be friendly?

 

She was so annoyed at that fact, that by sixth period, she had her phone out. She tapped Instagram and slid to Direct Messages, drafting a new one. 

 

_You might have a point_. She typed, her fingernails making quiet sounds against the glass screen of her phone. 

 

_Are you in?_ The reply came almost instantaneously. Allura’s heart raced for a moment before she typed. 

 

_ Yeah.  _

 

_Excellent_. He sent back. Meet you on the field after school. 

 

-

 

“Why are we here?” Allura asked, a hint of demand in her voice as she sank down next to Shiro, who was lying down on the grass. 

 

“Well, we have to talk about our fake relationship, don’t we?” Shiro asked. 

 

“I already drafted rules for us to follow.” She said, pulling a binder out of her bag and snapping it open. She handed him the lined sheet of paper. 

 

At the top, she had written in her loopy cursive: 

 

Contract 

 

With nothing afterwards. 

 

“Where is it? Did you write in invisible pen?” He asked, only half joking. 

 

She gave him a look. “I thought we could write the rules together. I was going to message you, but since we’re already in person…”

 

Shiro nodded thoughtfully, and handed the pen and paper over to her. “You go first.”

 

At the top, she wrote:

 

  1. No kissing. 



 

He peered over her shoulder to look at the rule. “Well, there has to be some romance, otherwise it won’t look real.” He protested. 

 

“Well, I don’t want to kiss you!” She protested as well. Not to sound too dramatic, but the last time she had kissed him, she had lost one of her best friends. 

 

“Okay, fine. No kissing, but add something else.” Shiro watched as her expression lit up and she set her pen to paper, neatly writing. 

 

He took the piece of paper over, and raised an eyebrow. “I get to put my hand in your back pocket? What is this, the sixties?”

 

“Haven’t you ever seen romance movies! Putting your hand in a girl’s back pocket is cute!”

 

He looked at her for a moment, shaking his head as his gray eyes glimmered with amusement. “Alright, then. Fine.” He wrote, and in his messy capitals, added:

 

3) Allura makes Shiro her wallpaper.

 

“Why do I have to change my wallpaper?” Allura whined, snatching back the paper and pen.

 

“Because. It’s what couples do. That way, you can seem more like a quiet sap who likes to keep our relationship more about us.” He answered, and she had to admit, that was a stroke of genius. He took back the sheet and wrote again, his broad shoulders hunched over so she couldn’t see. 

 

Once he was done, she peeked over. 

 

4) Allura will go somewhere with Shiro every week, and in return, Shiro will watch a movie with Allura.

 

“That sounds reasonable. But what if I have a test or something?” She asked. 

 

“We’ll study together. Is there anything else you want to add?” He asked, holding out the utensils to her. 

 

She thought for a moment, before neatly writing the last and final rule. 

 

5) Shiro and Allura will never, ever tell anyone about this.

 

And at the bottom, just to make it official, Allura signed her name in her neatest handwriting. Shiro inspected the last rule, and with a nod, signed his name right next to hers. 

 

When he handed the paper back to her, he had a goofy smile on his face. 

 

“What?” She asked, following his gaze to the paper. He had scribbled out the no in ‘No Kissing’ and written YES in all caps on top. 

 

“Shiro!” She complained as she scribbled over his ‘YES’ and rewrote ‘NO’ again. 

 

“Kidding, kidding. Now, come on. I’m sure the traffic has gone by now, so we can go home without having to worry about running over a poor freshman.” He joked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you thought in the comments! comments inspire me to update!
> 
> if you enjoyed, drop a kudos!
> 
> catch me on tumblr: @chai_and_coffee

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought! comments really inspire me to write!
> 
> drop a kudos if you enjoyed!
> 
> catch me on tumblr: @chai_and_coffee


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